Apple brings gender equality in iOS 10 emoji pack

NEW YORK: Technology giant Apple on Tuesday launched a new iOS emoji pack that show women playing more sports and performing jobs that, prior to the launch, were male-oriented.

The icons will be available on devices running the new iOS 10, the company announced in a statement.

"This exciting update brings more gender options to existing characters, including new female athletes and professionals, adds beautiful redesigns of popular emoji, a new rainbow flag and more family options," Apple said.

According to The Verge, the new set of emoji, which includes more than 100 variations when you take skin colour options into account, also includes a water gun icon in place of the old revolver, a rainbow flag and two different gender options depicting single-parent families.

Apple has also introduced two male options for previously female-only emoji, including a haircut and scalp massage emoji.

"Apple is working closely with the Unicode Consortium to ensure that popular emoji characters reflect the diversity of people everywhere," the company added.

In June, Apple CEO Tim Cook unveiled iOS 10 for iPhones and iPads on the opening day of the annual Worldwide Developers' Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. He also announced to move its digital assistant Siri to Mac and opening it to third-party developers.

Cook showcased iOS 10 featuring huge updates like stickers and full-screen effects to Apple Messages that delivers more expressive and animated ways to connect with friends and family.

"Messages is the most frequently used iOS app and with iOS 10, it will become more expressive. Automatic suggestions will make it easy to replace words with emoji," Apple had said.

The company rolled out beta versions for developers and public beta versions for non-developers will follow in July.